Saturday, April 27, 2013

Anthony Grant Press Conference

Anthony Grant held a very interesting press conference on Friday in which he discussed a range of topics including the transfers of Moussa and Lacey, Dan Hipsher, next seasons' team, Ricky Tarrant, the NBA early entry rules, the non-conference schedule and the state of the Alabama program. Check it out.

11 comments:

well, to begin with, i'd venture a guess he didn't want to be there at that moment. he's sick with the crud. same crap i'm fighting right now.

two, this presser is about damage control. on the recruiting trail and off. perception is reality. and after losing Lacey, the perception is he's losing control. i wouldn't be shocked if our newly minted AD didn't have a meeting with him and explain this.

considering all, i think he handled it well. answered some tough questions w/ poise and lucidity although there are some points i don't have time to address now but will get to later.

but i think even happy will agree w/ me. if Lacey's still on the team, this presser doesn't happen.

Actually, all coaches have a season wrap-up type of press conference sometime just after the final game of the season or at the end of the signing period. That said, I do think the Lacey transfer prompted Grant to get out there and answer the questions that many have been asking. I thought he was pretty straightforward with his responses. It certainly seems, based on Grant's side of the story, that Lacey's decision to leave wasn't purely Lacey's decision, but was in fact much more heavily influenced by his family. Even Lacey's statement reflects this. I sure hope it works out well for all involved.

My problem, the excuses. "We're further along than we were four years ago" "It's a building process." Watching his press conference is like watching a Mike Shula press conference in 2006, and watching a Mark Gottfried press conference in 2009. There are always excuses, but rarely comments on how to fix the problems. The excuses need to stop, because when a coach makes so many excuses it does not give the fan base confidence that the coach has a plan to turn it around. With the money Grant is making, he should have a top 25 program by now, the fact that he does not is why he is on the hot seat. He is entering year 5, he needs to stop blaming his problem on the previous regime.

CT: You're always going to have a problem as long as Anthony Grant is the head coach.

Those are not excuses you referenced, they are facts. The program IS further along than it was four years ago. And it IS a building process.

I thought Grant was honest in his answers, explained his perspective and I never got the impression that he was being defensive with the press, despite obviously being under the weather and having to field some awkward questions. It was impressive and only strengthened my conviction that he can deal with this increased pressure from the fanbase (and media) over the last year. He's focused on getting better, not what some of the fans are saying or the players he's lost to transfer. He'd prefer to leave that for jackasses like us to argue over.

It is not a fact, what Grant wanted to build should have been built right now, all of the players on the floor in the Mercer, Tulane, Dayton, SECT, and NIT games were Grant players. The fact that we are not a top 25 team by now, is absurd for the amount of money Grant is making, he has had plenty of time. He just takes the easy way out by pointing out that we lost 14 games the year before he got here, and 4 years in has now taken us from a 14 loss team to a 13 loss team, truly remarkable coaching job. The fact that he thinks players leaving forces him to put the assistant coaching search "on hold" is incompetence at the highest level. Have you seen the way Anthony Grant uses timeouts, or runs the offense, or develops players? Hard to refer to that as anything other than complete incompetence. Grant's signature recruit bolted because of that, maybe at the advice of his parents who saw that Grant did not have a clue on how to use their son. It does not matter if Lacey was pressured or not, the bottom line is they left, not because they wanted to leave Alabama, but because they wanted to get away from Anthony Grant. That is a fact, that not even the most hardcore CAG apologists can dispute. Before the Lacey debacle, it was debatable on weather or not Grant should get another year, now there is no debate on weather or not Grant has a clue on how to run a major college basketball program. Compose a starting lineup of the players that have left the sinking ship during Grant's tenure, and they would probably beat the one Alabama will put on the floor next year. Ouch! So, yes I will always have a problem with the program until this incompetent goofball is let go, and prevented from holding the program back like he is right now.

yeah. i read the piece again this morn looking for updates. i found this paragraph i seemed to have missed yesterday:

"The complaint states that Pollard's son's car was searched after investigators found it was similar to a vehicle shown on surveillance video at the Best Western Hotel in Bessemer. With consent of the owner, the vehicle was searched at Pollard's residence in Northport and a Best Western key and receipt as well as Walmart receipts for the cell phones."

normally they qualify new info as an update. i can't believe i missed this reading the piece yesterday.

is "pollard's son's car" devonta's??

"With consent of the owner, the vehicle was searched at Pollard's residence in Northport"

with consent of the owner???

it would seem so but the writer goes to great lengths to keep from using devonta's given name in id'ing the car.

Devonta has not been charged, only his mother. I am unsure if there is another son. There's a lot of story left to be reported, I think. I can't see a scenario in which this would demand NCAA scrutiny. If Devonta was involved, I would think it would be up to the university and coaching staff on how to proceed. The only way it becomes an NCAA issue is if the coaching staff assisted in the kidnapping and then sought to cover it up with assistance from someone in the university chain of command in order to protect a player or the image of the university.

I get the feeling coaches of every sport wish there was never an offseason.